As Few Youth Speak at UN Youth Summit, from Mugabe to Maudet of Geneva

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 25 -- At the UN on Monday there was a lot of talk about youth, but not enough talk by young people themselves, at least not in the General Assembly. This was the assessment of the Swiss delegate Oliver Felix.

He told the Press that the outcome document of this High Level Meeting on Youth was agreed to in February, but that actual participation by young people in the event was less than it should be. He said that some of the substantive parts of the World Program for Action on Youth were being opposed the members of the Group of 77.

He was accompanied by the 33 year old mayor of Geneva Pierre Maudet, who began by noting the decidedly non-young participation of some heads of state, including Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe.

When Inner City Press asked for more about Mugabe, Maudet said it was not his place to judge, that the UN is like “une auberge Espanol” where you decide what to come look for, then find it.

Earlier, Inner City Press spoke with a youth delegate from South Africa in a less formal setting, who extolled the connections between studying chemical engineering and international politics. He had agreed to transport back home a suitcase full of the school books of a South African student at NYU, since they are needed back home.

The UN and these meetings, then, are different things to different people. Of the idea for a new UN Agency for Youth, Maudet was skeptical, calling it the bureaucratic (or “non-youth”) way of burying a problem in a new agency. One wondered what he'd think of the new UN Women.

Inner City Press asked Maudet about Geneva's relations with the UN and its agencies. He said that it's in Geneva that “norms” are set, in telecommunications, commerce and health. He said Geneva is geographically small, and big businesses like Proctor & Gamble are moving in from London, with problems ranging from parking to affordable housing.

Maudet mentioned CERN's collider. Inner City Press asked if there's been any thought of an alliance of mayors of UN cities -- New York, Geneva, Nairobi, Vienna, Addis Ababa, Bonn. Maudet said the idea exists and he's tried to reach out to New York, but Mr. Bloomberg is busy. What about his sister? Busy too, preparing the the 9-11-01 anniversary. Perhaps after that. We'll see.

At UN Entrance, Chavez on Zelaya, Mugabe, Obama Watch, Turkmen and Entourage

By Matthew Russell Lee
www.innercitypress.com/un64ga1m092309.html

UNITED NATIONS, September 23, updated -- At the UN's entrance Wednesday morning, Robert Mugabe and then Hugo Chavez came in. Chavez came over to the crowded stakeout the Press was penned into, and even answered a few questions. Zelaya? He is "un valiente," a valiant. Chavez said he hasn't been to the UN General Assembly for three years, but he is hoping for "good speeches."

One TV journalist yelled out, "Any books for President Obama?" The reference was to Chavez' gift of Chomsky to Bush. Inner City Press wonders, if not sulfur, what will it smell like?

The second entering president to speak to the Press was Fernandez of the Dominican Republic, with what one photographer called an "insanely large" entourage. As he spoke about coup d'etat -- presumably, Honduras -- a trio of journalists with "Turkmenistan" emblazoned on their jackets grumbled. Who is this guy?

The question was, where is Obama? Michele Obama came in...

Update of 9:32 a.m. -- security tells the Press, Obama will arrive in two minutes. The Press is locked in the stakeout. As we wait, Inner City Press is asked, why does Brazil always speak first? A UN staffer answers, the first GA president did it, and they've kept the tradition.

During the wait, a UN security officer tells TV camera people to stop standing on the chairs. When they ignore him, he starts taking the chairs. The camera people just push closer to the front edge of the stakeout.

Even diplomats are stopped for a time from entering. A Sri Lankan diplomat flashes her "secondary pass," but the security officer shrugs. You have to wait just like the others. Entourages pour in.

Update of 9:40 p.m. -- the two minutes have turned to eight. Now a security officer says, in Spanish, cinco minutos. Then, diez minutos. There is a strangely near reverential lull and silence.

Update of 9:42 a.m. - Gaddafi comes in. "What is your message to the people of Britain?" one journalist shouts out. Gaddafi is flashing theV peace sign -- for the record, two fingers. He is trailed by women in combat fatigues with long black hair.

Update of 9:53 a.m. -- Rwanda's President Paul Kagame walks in, and no one at the stakeout calls out a question or even notices, so intent on Obama's now delayed entrance.... We can call this, political paparazzi....

Update of 9:59 a.m. -- "this is is," the woman from the UN's Department of Public Information says. And after a slew of security officers, there is Obama, waving to the Press. Reporters shout only his name, no questions. Then in his wake, anther call: "Hilary!" By the time Ambassador Susan Rice walks by, next to a tall red headed woman -- we are assuming Samantha Power -- no reporter shouts anything. Two minutes later, the stakeout has emptied out. It's all about Obama...

Update of 10:26 a.m. -- as Obama, with the green marble backdrop, says the U.S. will work with Russia, the UN TV camera pans to Russia's seat, in which the country's Ambassador to the UN Vitaly Churkin sits nonplussed. Coming up from the stakeout, reporters are crowded around TV screens on the third floor -- even without sound! filming each other! It is hard to describe Obama's tone: teacher-ly? He might (want to) appear to be lecturing...

Update of 10:31 a.m. -- a press conference by the spokesman for Japan's new prime minister, which was scheduled to start at 10 a.m., has been delayed. Deferred, one might say, out of deference, not wanting to overlap with Obama. Perhaps its that no repoters would go to the Japanese presser at this time. The next is Spain's Zapatero at noon.

Update of 11:39 a.m. -- Obama went 38 minutes, and Gaddafi for now is at 32 minutes. He has called the Security Council the "Terror Council." This is the PG version of what he may do and say in the Security Council tomorrow...

And see, www.innercitypress.com/un64ga1m092309.html

UN Accepted Mugabe's Exchange Rate in Zimbabwe, Refuses to Disclose Losses As In Myanmar

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/un1ratezim112708.html

UNITED NATIONS, November 27 -- The UN let the Zimbabwe regime of Robert Mugabe take a cut of all aid money it raised and, until two week ago, converted at a government-imposed rate at the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, two UN officials admitted to Inner City Press on November 26.

Catherine Bragg, Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator in the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, refused to compare the exchange rate the UN accepted from the government to other available rates. "The UN does use the black market," she said. "Whatever exchange rate the government allows us to have, the UN has to use." Video here, from Minute 11:59.

Ms. Bragg and OCHA were appealing for $550 million for Zimbabwe in 2009. In 2008, using but not disclosing Mugabe regime dictated exchange rates, the UN appealed for $400 million, and raised and spent $300 million.

Earlier this year, Inner City Press exposed the UN's loss of 20 to 25% of money raised by the UN and spent in Myanmar after Cyclone Nargis as the UN allowed the Than Shwe military government to require conversion of dollars into government Foreign Exchange Certificates. Click here for that.

At that time, Inner City Press asked OCHA chief John Holmes, as well as the spokespeople for Ban Ki-moon, UNICEF and the UN Development Program to disclose any other countries in which the UN system was losing 5% or more to government require currency exchange. The responses ranges from "there are no such countries" -- which is now shown to be untrue -- to "we don't need to tell you."

This latter approached was continued four months later, by Ms. Bragg and Ban's spokesperson Michele Montas. Ms. Bragg refused to compare the Zimbabwe rate up until two weeks ago to the exchange rates others were able to obtain.

Ms. Montas after a back and forth with Inner City Press said that even the UN's unofficial information on exchange rate losses "will not be available to you." Video here, at Minute 27:35 - in the UN's transcript, her quote is inaccurately transcripts as "will not be valuable to you." The UN's summary of Ms. Bragg's OCHA press conference does not use the word black market, which she used two times, and does not include the unanswered questions in this regard.

How could the UN appeal for hundreds of millions of dollars while it knew that of this aid money it was losing high percentages -- 25% in Myanmar, an unknown percentage in Zimbabwe and other undisclosed countries?

From the November 26 noon briefing transcript:

Inner City Press: And also I wanted to ask you, there was a press conference here at 11 by OCHA about Zimbabwe, the scope of which was explicitly Zimbabwe only… but an issue that arose was when, the UN, apparently up until two weeks ago when they converted donor dollars in Zimbabwe, they received a foreign exchange rate significantly lower than the market rate. But, they said that they were unwilling to compare the two, because the UN doesn’t do business “on the black market”. Is it, does the UN, I guess, if it’s spending donor money, is some attempt made to see that in fact the money is not just being lost to governments like, in this case Zimbabwe, or what happened in Myanmar. What safeguards are in place to make sure that money is not being lost to governments when they require conversions of funds with them?

Spokesperson: Okay, what we are also concerned about is not going through illegal channels. And the UN cannot afford to go the black market. What Ms. Bragg said was true. In terms of trying to find the best rates, as you know, they negotiate in every single country where the UN operates. So, short of going through the illegal market, we are doing what we can to try to get the best rate we can possibly have.

Inner City Press: I tried to ask Ms. Bragg if the UN had compared other rates available other than the one they were getting from the government and she said, no, we only take one with the government. So how would, how would the UN know if it’s getting a good rate or not if it doesn’t, I guess I’m, maybe the question to you or to OCHA is, what has been the spread between what other people get as an exchange rate and what the UN gets from the government?

Spokesperson: I don’t have that information. If Ms. Bragg could not give to you, I don’t have it.

Inner City Press: She said it was a matter of policy. They won’t even say what the comparison is because they don’t want to talk about a “black market”.

Spokesperson: I understand her point.

Inner City Press: So, I go back to this. With these cap appeals that come out, how is there any way to know how much of the money is being lost in government foreign exchange conversions, if the UN has a policy of never comparing the rates.

Spokesperson: Well, the situation is that we are an intergovernmental organization. You have to take into account the legal government that is in any country, whether there are problems or not, of course. The policy is trying to find the best rates, but within legal ways.

Inner City Press: I guess I’m…

Spokesperson: In some countries it’s not a black market. It’s a competitive market. Then the UN tries to get the best rate. Whenever you have a government-controlled system like this one, the UN does not have a choice.

Inner City Press: Right. I guess, just to deal with that, I understand what you’re saying, it seems important to know what, to know what the losses are, to know…

Spokesperson: I’m sure they are aware of it.

Inner City Press: Then why wouldn’t they disclose them? If they just asked the international community for hundreds of millions of dollars, if the UN knows how much is being lost to the Government, why would it be against the policy to say…?

Spokesperson: Because they cannot officially take into account the black market.

Inner City Press: Could it be done on some unofficial basis?

Spokesperson Montas: It’s certainly done on an unofficial basis. But it won’t be valuable to you.

This last transcription is significantly and seemingly intentionally inaccurate. As the video shows, Ms. Montas says, "it won't be available to you." Video here, at Minute 27:35; the Q&A starts here at Minute 24:30.

After Ms. Bragg's formal press briefing, Inner City Press asked OCHA's country leader Rania Degash if she could speak about the exchange rate losses. No, she said, saying that the UN Development Program had been in charge of it. Another correspondent muttered, this is so secret, what is it, the CIA? But even that agency is overseen to some degree by a legislature. Who oversees the UN? The ethically-compromised Inga-Britt Ahlenius of OIOS? No one, apparently.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/un1ratezim112708.html

At UN, Zimbabwe Resolution Unveiled, with Name Games and Notice of Sanctions, Perhaps No Veto

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/un2zimnames070308.html

UNITED NATIONS, July 3 -- As the U.S. Mission to the UN unveiled its draft resolution to impose targeted sanctions on Zimbabwe, the Press was given a version with 11 targeted names, not 12. Missing in the draft the U.S. handed out was Gideon Gono, the central bank governor. But the UK mission said that Gono was and is on the list, and the U.S. later confirmed this. Was his omission, from the U.S. draft, a sign of some alliance between Washington and Harare high finance? "Don't read too much into it," Inner City Press was told.

July's president of the Council, Vietnam's Le Luong Minh, was coaxed to come out to the stakeout. He said that the Council's meeting on Zimbabwe will be Tuesday, something that the U.S. but not he had said the previous day. The format, he said, is still under consideration. Inner City Press asked him if Deputy Secretary General Asha Rose Migiro will brief the Council. The format is still not decided, he repeated, but "of course" Migiro would be invited. Video here.

An African Ambassador complained to Inner City Press that he thinks Migiro's job will be to present the mood at the African Union's Egypt meeting, which she attended, as more anti-Mugabe than in fact it was.

When Inner City Press pointed out to this Ambassador that Kenyan prime minister Odinga, for example, criticized Mugabe, the response was, "but of course, since he too got outside help."

News analysis: while Russian Ambassador Churkin on July 2 said, "We don't like sanctions" and said that the regional SADC process should be allowed to work, it not entirely sure that this resolution would be vetoed. That South Africa would vote against it appears to be nearly certain. But South Africa does not have a veto. Could Russia and China be convinced to abstain rather than veto? A cynic might think that since by publishing the twelve names days in advance of the vote they can just move any money that might be frozen, perhaps abstentions -- even in exchange for this absurd advance notice -- might be expected. We'll see.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/un2zimnames070308.html

Let Zimbabwe's Cricket Players Travel, UN's Advisor Lemke Says, UK Disagrees, Croatia Zim Role Questioned

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/un1zimsports062708.html

UNITED NATIONS, June 27 -- With Robert Mugabe running his version of an election today in Zimbabwe, and in light of the UK's Gordon Brown vowing to work to block the Zimbabwean cricket team from traveling to play in the UK, Inner City Press asked the UN's new Special Advisor on Sports and Development and Peace, Willi Lemke, for his view on Brown's athletic travel ban plans. "I disagree with the position of the UK government," Lemke replied. "If they train hard, then politicians say" they cannot travel, "it is very hard to understand for the people that trained." Video here, from Minute 14:20.

Inner City Press asked the UK's Ambassador to the UN John Sawers about Lemke's comments. "He doesn't understand the relation between the Zimbabwean government and the Zimbabwe Cricket Union," Ambassador Sawers said.

Lemke was pressed to answer if he is asking to visit Tibet. He replied that yes he would like to visit, to look into sports issues, such as if there are physical education classes in the schools. That there may be more pressing issues in Tibet did not come up. "I don't want to get into trouble," Lemke had answered Inner City Press. When a reporter tried to ask what the "Peace" in his title means, the question was cut off. Afterwards, Lemke confirmed to Inner City Pres that he remains on the advisor board of the Werder Bremen football club. Might this raise a conflict of interest?

Inner City Press asked Ban Ki-moon's spokesperson if Mr. Ban agrees with the position of his Special Adviser. The Spokesperson said it is not possible to comment on every statement by his Special Advisors. When Inner City Press noted that Zimbabwe was a topic in the news -- in fact, the spokesperson had actively solicited someone to ask Ban "the Zimbabwe question" at the previous day's stakeout interview -- the response was that Ban has full confidence in his advisor. The inference seems inescapable that Ban, then, also "disagrees with the position of the UK government."

News analysis: so China was mad at Ban for saying publicly he will not go the Olympics, Russia remains mad at his position on Kosovo, and now his Special Advisor disses the UK for its stance on Zimbabwe, at least as to cricket. Just another week at the UN...

Footnote: as the Security Council met to consider a draft statement on Zimbabwe, South African Ambassador Dumisani Kumalo scoffed, about the country introducing the draft, they're using Croatia to do it. Some of these guys couldn't even find Zimbabwe on the map. Just as Costa Rica shot back at Sudan's Ambassador calling it a banana republic, a geographical retort from Croatia would seem to be in the cards.

Friday at 6 p.m. U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, as president of the Council, read notes to the press that all members reaffirmed their June 23 position, regreted that the election had gone forward, and would meet again "in the coming says." When asked if that meant the weekend, UK Ambassador Sawers said probably not. Asked if it meant after the African Union meeting, Monday in Egypt, Amb. Sawers said that would be a good guess. Watch this site.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/un1zimsports062708.html

On Violence from Zimbabwe to East Timor, UNDP Says One Thing But Does Another

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/undp1violence051608.html

UNITED NATIONS, May 16 -- One assumes that the UN system is adverse to violence and those who commit it, but the UN Development Program this week evinced an attitude more nuanced or conflicted. In Timor Leste, following the mass violence in 2006 which left 37 dead and 100,000 people displaced, the UN's own Commission of Inquiry named former Defense official Roque Rodriguez as a person who should be prosecuted for distributing weapons to those who did the killing. Two years later, UNDP has hired Mr. Rodrigues as a security consultant, which even the UN's Office of Legal Affairs has criticized. On May 13 at the UN's noon briefing, Inner City Press asked the Spokesperson

"In East Timor, there is this controversy where Roque Rodrigues, who is recommended by the UN Commission to be prosecuted, has now been hired by the UN as a Presidential Security Adviser. Supposedly, there is an OLA memo to ASG Mulet saying this is a bad thing for impunity. Can you confirm that such a memo exists and can you explain why the UN would hire a person that the UN itself says should be prosecuted?"

Spokesperson: Well, I think that, [according to] the last contact I had with them, the situation was being investigated and they were trying to find out what happened and what are the charges against this gentleman. At this point we don’t have the results of that investigation and we should find out very soon.

Inner City Press: Just to be, I felt that he was actually named in this UN Commission of Inquiry as someone who should be prosecuted.

Spokesperson: Yes, he was and how he got hired and how it happened, that is what is being investigated.

[She later added that Mr. Rodrigues was not a United Nations staff member. He was on a special service contract for UNDP.]

This bracketed addition to the UN's transcript was amplified to Inner City Press by UNDP's new spokesman Stephane Dujarric: "Mr. Rodrigues was contracted on an individual basis under a project in support of the office of the Timor-Leste President. He does not have any UN status, and indeed the question of his contracting is currently under discussion between the mission in Timor (UNMIT) and UN headquarters. "

But Inner City Press later on May 13 asked UNDP's spokesman some simple follow-up questions:

"Is UNDP paying Rodrigues' salary? You say that Rodrigues "does not have any UN status." What do you mean, he is a contractor, right? Isn't this his status -- he holds a SSA contract with UNDP? Or are you referring to privileges and immunities; that he has no such status, given that he is a contractor? Did the Govt of Timor Leste specifically request that UNDP hire Mr. Rodrigues as a consultant? If so, which official made this request?"

Dujarric notified Inner City Press on the afternoon of May 14 that he would not be able to answer the questions that night, presumably due to a need to seek information in Timor Leste. But more than two days later, there still is no response to these questions about why UNDP has as a contractor a person the UN itself has said should be prosecuted for participating in illegal violence.

Even when it is quoted in support of "anti-violence," UNDP's approach is open to question. In Harare, the Herald newspaper controlled by the Robert Mugabe government this week quoted UNDP's "Resident Representative Dr Agostinho Zacharias that 'We welcome reports that the authorities are intensifying the anti-violence campaign, we encourage them to continue to do so and ensure that violence is totally removed in all parts of the country... there are also reports indicating that MDC supporters are also resorting to violence and intimidation. This state of affairs is unacceptable to the UNCT.'"

For the UNDP's resident coordinator to be, on behalf the rest of the UN, "welcoming" the Mugabe government's "anti-violence campaign" seems more than a little strange. The UN Spokesperson said that Zacharias' written statement is available, but did not answer if the UN or UNDP has sought any correction of Mugabe's newspaper's use of Zacharias' comments. The Spokesperson called Zacharias' comments "balanced." But in some cases, particularly of violence, balance is not what's called for.

Rather than address these issues, UNDP's Ad Melkert on Friday presented himself to the press as a major opponent of cluster bombs. But why has UNDP hired as a security consultant a person the UN itself should be prosecuted for passing out weapons for mass violence? To be continued.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/undp1violence051608.html